Women's tennis team, individuals earn ITA academic honors

INDIANOLA, Iowa – The Simpson women's tennis team recently earned a handful of awards for academic excellence from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) for the 2013-14 season.

For the fifth year in a row, the Storm took home ITA All-Academic Team Award by achieving a cumulative grade point average above 3.20. In addition, team members Kelli Ehrhardt, Kelli Greiner, Sidney Griffith, Michelle Hartmann, Krista Rogers and Lauren Schemmel were named ITA Scholar-Athletes for compiling GPAs at or above 3.50.

The Storm and head coach Lindsay Chase have become a perennial fixture on the list, qualifying for the honor in five of Chase's six years at Simpson. The six individual scholar-athletes ties the most the Storm have ever qualified for the award.

2014 ITA Division III All-Academic Teams and Scholar-Athletes

The ITA All-Academic Team award is open to any ITA program that has a cumulative team grade point average of 3.20 or above (on a 4.00 scale). All eligible student-athletes whose names appear on the NCAA eligibility form and have competed in one or more varsity matches must average into the GPA for the current academic year (including fall 2013 and spring 2014).

In order to earn ITA Scholar-Athlete status a player must meet the following criteria: 1.) be a varsity letter winner, 2.) have a grade point average of at least 3.50 (on a 4.00 scale) for the current academic year, and 3.) have been enrolled at their present school for at least 2 semesters (including freshman through senior year).